Re: Dr. Paul MacCready passed away. I just received this on the Scat online.
>
> Paul Macready, Burt Rutan, Jean Luc Picard- at least 2 of my idols
are still alive, too bad
>
>
>
> Paul B. MacCready, the Caltech-trained scientist and inventor who
> created the Gossamer Condor -- the first successful human-powered
> airplane -- as well as other innovative aircraft, has died. He was
81.
>
> MacCready died in his sleep at his Pasadena home Tuesday, according
> to an announcement from AeroVironment Inc., the Monrovia-based
> company he founded. The statement said he had been recently
diagnosed
> with a serious ailment but the cause of death was not listed.
>
> An accomplished meteorologist, a world-class glider pilot and a
> respected aeronautical engineer, MacCready headed the team that
> designed and built the Gossamer Condor and the Gossamer Albatross --
> two flimsy, awkward-looking planes powered by a furiously pedaling
> bicycle racer -- that won him international fame and $300,000 in
> prize money.
>
> He also built and flew a radio-controlled replica of a prehistoric
> pterodactyl, the largest creature that ever took to the air.
>
> His successes in these and other imaginative projects led to more
> than 30 prestigious awards, including the Collier Trophy for
> achievement in aeronautics and astronautics, and five honorary
> degrees.
>
> The slight, pale, bespectacled MacCready said it all probably
stemmed
> from a rather nerdy childhood.
>
> "I was always the smallest kid in the class," he told the National
> Aviation Hall of Fame. "I was not especially coordinated --
certainly
> not the athletic type -- and socially immature.
>
> "And so, when I began getting into model airplanes, and getting
into
> contests and creating new things, I probably got more psychological
> benefit from that than I would have from some of the other typical
> school things," he said. "Nobody seemed to be quite as motivated
for
> the new and strange as I was."
>
> There were those who denigrated MacCready's efforts, saying they
had
> no practical value. He said his critics missed the point.
>
> "Lindbergh's flight across the Atlantic did not directly advance
> airplane design," MacCready said. "The plane was a lousy plane. It
> was unstable and you couldn't see forward very well. You wouldn't
> want to design another like it. But it changed the world by being a
> catalyst for thinking about aviation."
>
> Lindbergh's plane, the Spirit of St. Louis, hangs today from a
> ceiling at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in
> Washington, D.C. Hanging next to it is MacCready's Gossamer Condor.
>
> MacCready's foray into aviation history began as the result of a
bad
> loan.
>
> In 1970, MacCready guaranteed a loan for a friend who wanted to
start
> a business building fiberglass catamarans. When the company failed,
> MacCready found himself $100,000 in debt.
>
> Casting around for a way to deal with that problem, he recalled a
> cash prize offered by British industrialist Henry Kremer to anyone
> who built a human-powered plane capable of sustained, controlled
> flight.
>
> "The Kremer prize, in which I'd had no interest, was just about
equal
> to my debt," MacCready said. "Suddenly, human-powered flight seemed
> important."
>
> To win the prize, he had to create an airplane that could take off
on
> its own and fly a figure-eight, 1.15-mile course, clearing 10-foot
> hurdles at the beginning and end. Several people had tried; all had
> failed.
>
> MacCready said he studied the soaring flights of hawks and
vultures,
> calculating the amount of lift needed to keep the birds aloft and
> comparing that with what he knew about gliders.
>
> He concluded that if he could triple the wingspan of a glider
without
> increasing its weight, the power needed to keep it aloft in level
> flight would be only about four-tenths of one horsepower. He knew
> that a well-conditioned athlete could produce about that, and maybe
a
> little more, for an extended period.
>
> The spindly, translucent Gossamer Condor that resulted was crafted
of
> aluminum tubing, plastic sheeting, piano wire and Scotch tape. It
had
> a wingspan of 90 feet but weighed only 70 pounds. The pilot was
Bryan
> Allen, a strong, slender bicycle racer who powered the single
> propeller by pedaling a drive chain made largely of old bicycle
parts.
>
> The Condor flew from the outset, but not well. However, because it
> flew so slowly and at such a low height -- about 10 mph and about
15
> feet -- MacCready was able to improve its design through trial and
> error.
>
>
> The bizarre aircraft crashed scores of times during flight tests,
but
> Allen always emerged relatively unscathed. MacCready noted dryly
that
> his crash-and-rebuild system worked all right for the Condor, "but
it
> is not the way to develop airliners."
>
> Finally, on Aug. 23, 1977, the Condor made a successful seven-
minute
> flight over a figure-eight course laid out around the airport in
the
> dusty San Joaquin Valley farming town of Shafter. MacCready claimed
> the Kremer prize and was celebrated as the father of human-powered
> flight.
>
> "We're at last achieving a goal that man has had for thousands of
> years," he said.
>
> Within months, Kremer had offered a prize of about $213,000 for the
> first human-powered flight across the English Channel.
>
> MacCready immediately began improving the Condor. What emerged was
> the Gossamer Albatross, which he described as a "next-step clone."
> The biggest difference was its stronger, lighter frame, made of
> carbon fiber tubing instead of aluminum.
>
> On June 12, 1979, with Allen at the pedals, the Albatross took off
> from Folkestone, England, and headed east. Fighting head winds and
> turbulence for the better part of three hours, Allen overcame
cramps
> and exhaustion to land successfully on the beach at Cap Gris-Nez,
> France.
>
> Kremer called it a "splendid achievement" and handed over the prize
> money.
>
> Six months later, MacCready's ultralight Gossamer Penguin, powered
by
> a 2.75-horsepower motor that ran on electricity generated by solar
> panels atop the fuselage, skimmed over the Arizona desert in the
> first climbing flight powered by sunlight.
>
> In 1981, a similar plane, MacCready's Solar Challenger, flew 180
> miles from Paris, France, to Kent, England. A few years later,
> another of his human-powered aircraft, the Bionic Bat, won two more
> Kremer prizes.
>
> In one of his greatest flights of fancy, MacCready then enlisted
the
> help of engineer Henry Jex to create and fly a wing-flapping, radio-
> controlled, half-scale replica of a pterodactyl, a creature with a
36-
> foot wingspan that last soared over Mesozoic landscapes more than
60
> million years ago.
>
> "If you can make something that moves around but gives you the
> feeling of a prehistoric creature, then people experience it; they
> feel it much better," MacCready said in a magazine interview.
>
> In 1987, his GM Sunraycer, a streamlined vehicle the size of a
> soapbox derby entry, easily won a 1,867-mile race in Australia
> against other, larger, solar-powered cars.
>
> Some of his later creations were big, like the Helios, an unmanned,
> solar-powered plane with 14 electric motors and a 200-foot wingspan
> that climbed to more than 96,000 feet. It was the highest altitude
> ever achieved by a propeller-driven aircraft.
>
> Some were small, like his surveillance planes, the size of a man's
> hand, that carried tiny television cameras.
>
> Some didn't work, like a little plane powered by a hamster.
>
> "Hamsters are lazy," he lamented.
>
> The son of a prosperous physician, Paul Beattie MacCready was born
in
> New Haven, Conn., on Sept. 29, 1925.
>
> By the time he was 14, he had designed and built a number of
> unconventional model planes, including an autogyro that flew for
more
> than 12 minutes, outlasting the best efforts of adults entered in
the
> same competition. Two years later, he tried his hand in real
> airplanes, earning a pilot's license.
>
> He entered Yale in 1943, at the same time signing up for training
as
> a Navy pilot. His studies were interrupted occasionally by flight
> training, but World War II ended before he graduated; he never saw
> combat.
>
> In 1947, MacCready bought an Army surplus glider and, combining his
> Navy flight skills with his Yale training in meteorology, he soon
> became an expert glider pilot. He invented a system that is still
> used to calculate optimum flight speeds between thermal air
currents.
>
> A year later, MacCready earned a master's degree in physics at
> Caltech and won the first of three national soaring championships.
>
> In 1951, he founded Meteorology Research Inc., which quickly became
a
> leader in weather modification technology and the manufacture of
> remote-controlled aircraft for atmospheric research.
>
> MacCready received a doctorate in aeronautics from Caltech in 1952,
> and in 1956, he became the first American to win the World Champion
> Soaring Contest.
>
> Several years later, he founded AeroVironment, which produces
> electronic systems, surveillance aircraft and experimental, energy-
> efficient cars and boats. The firm also builds systems to monitor
and
> reduce air pollution and hazardous waste.
>
> MacCready often stressed the importance of independent thought.
>
> "You will find that your teachers are sometimes wrong," he told a
> group of Santa Monica schoolchildren in 1998.
>
> "Your parents will be wrong. Your schools will be wrong. If you
look
> for the answers yourself, you will find that you can do better."
>
> Nobel laureate Murray Gell-Mann, a close friend, attributed
> MacCready's creativity to his outlook.
>
> "He approaches nature and daily life with an innocent sense of
> wonder," Gell-Mann told Time magazine in 1990.
>
> "He approaches problems and learning about new things in the same
> way: without strongly held, preconceived notions. When he sees
> something, he takes a fresh view of it."
>
> MacCready is survived by his wife, Judy; three sons, Parker, Tyler
> and Marshall; and two grandchildren.
>
> ON THE WEB
> To see more photos of Paul MacCready and his aircraft inventions,
go
> to www.latimes.com/maccready.
>
>
>
> ............
> Roger Morrell
>
Received on Thu Sep 06 2007 - 06:51:33 CEST
This archive was generated by Yannick on Sat Dec 14 2019 - 19:13:45 CET